FISH FARMING IN AMERICA.

Southland Times, Issue 998, 5 August 1868, Page 3

FISH FARMING IN AMERICA.

(From the "Pall Mall Q-azette.") If we " Britishers " wish to increase, or even preserve our reputation as pisiculturists, we shall have to be far more industrious than we have been, for a man has arisen in America whose ideas about fish farming are in keeping with jfche_greatoeaa _ of_that . mighty continent and the waters thereof. Seth Green, of Mumford, near Rochester, !New York, has not only fish ponds of his own, has not only bred shad, trout, and other fish, but wants to "goin " for fish farming on a gigantic scale, if the State will only pay for the necessary apparatus. That Seth Green is an enthusiastic pisciculturist there can be no doubt, seeing that on one occasion he sat for two days in a tree to watch the spawning salmon. We never could bring ourselves to believe half the stories which from time to time have been circulated about fish farming in America; indeed we were loth to believe that the art of pisciculture had been necessary in a country so rich in natural water — water, tooj that if we may believe travellers' tales, was literally alive with all kinds of fine fish. A copy of a report which has just been forwarded to us, addressed to his Excellency the Governor and Honourable Council of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, shows that the stories of the inexhaustible private breeding-ponds, where men shovel out the finest trout in hundreds — nay, in thousands — may after all be true. There can, at any rate, be no doubt of this fact — namely, that some ingenious and wonderful engineering feats have been accomplished in connection with some of the American fresh-water fisheries, such as the erection of fresh- water fish stairs and passes, which have proved thoroughly practical, although some wiseacres who inspected them said that the fish would never learn to ascend such crooked paths. The chief value, however, of this American fishery report consists in its corroborating an idea that has been frequently ventilated by some fishery economists of -this country to the effect that we have been " overfishing." That it is possible to overfish has been shown in this journal in connection with the herring fishery; that we have deranged the economy of our greatest herring shoal is beyond dispute ; that our oyster scalps have been too severely drawn upon, and that some of our salmon rivers have been depopulated, has been frequently demonstrated, although unwillingly believed by those who capture all the fish they can, without thinking whence future supplies are to be obtained. The fact that some of the large rivers of America have been exhausted of their fish comes, therefore, in good time to make us pause, and ought, to teach our British fishermen that they must be cautious in the future not to take from the waters fish that ought to be left for breeding purposes. Time was when any one might catch in an American brook a sufficiency of fish for a good meal. JNow such a feat is impossible, and even sea fish cannot. be obtained at a less price than lOd a pound ; and, as for: trout, why, so fine a delicacy even of asmall size would cost any purchaser at least a dollar ! Such is now the scarcity of fish in America that unless artificial cultivation be more and more resorted to, the finer kinds, we are told, will literally soon be worth their weight in silver. . . The remedy suggested and now adopted in America, as in Trance and Britain, is artificial spawning and breeding, and the State has .riot been niggardly in making • annual grants for fishways over dams and; other obstructions. Laws have also been devised for the protection of the fish, and millowners have been compelled to make free passages. The Commissioners intend this year to make experiments in artificial breeding on a gigantic scale.; They will also hold meetings from time to time, with the endeavor to establish a common, policy for New England in the attempt to res' ore their indigenous fishes, as also to introduce new ones. Seth Green is taking an active part in this new fishery scheme, and bids fair to be the Eeiny of America because of his originality, boldness, and ability. He has, we are told by the C,ommissidners : in their report, a living faith that the rivers, ponds, and bays of America may, by artificial breeding, be so stocked with all kinds of fish that, to use h's own words, "the people won't be able to catch them out if they' try." His experiments in shad culture have been eminently successful. This fish is difficult to operate upon, because its eggs hatch out with great rapidity, . and the young cannot subs? St . for above two days on the yolk-sac; but Green; has- been so successfulas to natch out at the rate of ioaly one spoiled egg in every thousand !. If the fish were left to spawn in the natural mode, the figures would, in all probability, be reversed. In Europe here, only brie salmon of those naturally bred arrives at such'inaturity as to be able to propagate its kind. The chief secret of i successful fish-breeding lies in the feeding of the young animals till they are able to. seek their own food ; whilst thousands of salmon fry in European rivers annually become the prey of other fishes, other thousands; die of hunger, either because .there is no proper food at hand, or from their inability to seek it. The Americans, then, have come to the conclusion that the only way to keep up the supplies i3 to sow fish as they would sow corn, and- to provide .food for the young animals in the river as they do for the young animals on the laud* The American Fishery Commissioners see no reason why their supplies of fish may not be indefinitely increased, and they calculate with certainty on the co-operation of all interested. All new things are hard of introduction; "but ' " once show the fisherman that shad are increasing and salmon are coming in, and they maybe relied on to support measures which they have at one time regarded* wifli inoraHulty." ■ Tbgiye an idea of the large scale on which fish; culture ought to be conducted, the Commissioners indicate that a ,trout-breeding " concern " ought to have five artificial ponds of an acre each, which would be sufiicient : to grow

a million of fish, and it is recommended that in other ponds of a larger size inferior kinds of fish might be grown as at Commachio, to feed the principal animals. This is a hint that ought to be taken by the proprietors of the river Severn. Were they to hatch out annually one million of salmon ova, and feed the younp for a year or two, they would in five years render that river the most progressive in the world.